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Thera 7.4: Sopaka2
Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(227):Sopaka2 Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'. ---- Chapter VII. Seven Verses =227. Sopāka2= Reborn in this Buddha-age to a pariah's wife, he was called, according to his birth, Sopāka (pariah). Some say he was born in a trader's family. This is contradicted by the Apadāna text (pāḷiyā): When to my last birth I had won, Into Sopāka-womb I came. Four months after birth he lost his father, and was maintained by his uncle. The latter, when Sopāka was seven years old, was remainden by his own ill-tempered son to kill the child. So he took him to the charnel-field(cemetry), bound his hands, and tied him by the neck to a corpse, thinking, 'Let the jackals and others devour him,' for he was not able himself to kill the child, who had come to his last rebirth. The jackals and other creatures came, and the child at midnight cried: O what the fate in store for me, Or who to the orphan lone is kin! In midst of dreadful deathfield bound, Whom shall I find to be my friend?1 The Lord(Buddha), at that hour surveying what fellow-men were redeemable,2 saw the conditions of arahantship(enlightenment) shining 234 within the child's heart, and drew his attention by emitting a glorious divine image, saying: ---- Come then, Sopaka, fear you not; See the Tathagatha (i.e Buddha)! I, even I, will bear you over, As moon comes safe from Rāhus jaws.3 ---- The boy by the Buddha's power broke his bonds, and at the end of the verse stood, a Stream-winner(Sotapana/first samadhi of Nirvana), before the Fragrant Chamber.4 Now his mother sought him, and the uncle telling her nothing, she went to the Exalted One(Buddha), thinking 'the Buddhas know all, past, future, and present.' The Lord(Buddha), as she came, hid the boy by iddhi, and to her saying, 'Lord, I cannot find my son, nevertheless the Exalted One knows what he is doing?' he replied: ---- Sons are no shelter nor father, nor any family relatives. For one overtaken by death, bloodbond is no refuge, ...5 ---- so teaching her the Path(Dhamma). She, hearing, became a Stream-winner, but the boy an arahant(enlightened). Then the Exalted One withdrew iddhi, and she, overjoyed, saw her son. Hearing he was arahant(enlightened), she made him to leave the world(for monkhood), and went her way.6 Now he came and saluted the Lord(Buddha), as he was walking in the shade of the Fragrant Chamber, and followed him. And the Exalted One(Buddha), desiring to grant him initiation into monkhood, asked him the ten questions beginning: 'What is the one'?'7 He, grasping the Lord(Buddha)'s intention, supplied the answers, 'All beings are sustained by food,' etc., by his omniscience. From where the name of the 'Boy-Questions' arose. And the Lord(Buddha), satisfied in mind by his replies, initiated him into monkhood. All this the Thera set forth in confessing aññā(supreme attainment) thus: ---- 480 Disvā pāsādachāyāyaɱ caŋkamantaɱ naruttamaɱ,|| Tattha naɱ upasaŋkamma vandisaɱ purisuttamaɱ.|| || 481 Ekaɱ saɱ cīvaraɱ katvā saɱharitvāna pāṇayo,|| Anucaŋkamissaɱ virajaɱ sabbasattānamuttamaɱ.|| || 482 Tato pañhe apucchi maɱ pañhānaɱ kovido vidū,|| Acchambhī ca abhīto ca vyākāsiɱ satthuno ahaɱ.|| || 483 Vissajjitesu pañhesu anumodi tathāgato,|| Bhikkhusaŋghaɱ viloketvā imamatthaɱ abhāsatha.|| || 484 Lābhā aŋgānamagadhānaɱ yesāyaɱ paribhuñjati,|| Cīvaraɱ piṇḍapātaɱ ca paccayaɱ sayanāsanaɱ,|| Paccuṭṭhānaɱ ca sāmīciɱ tesaɱ lābhāti cābravi. || || 485 Ajjatagge maɱ sopāka assanāyupasaŋkama,|| Esā ceva te sopāka bhavatu upasampadā.|| || 486 Jātiyā sattavassohaɱ laddhāna upasampadaɱ,|| Dhāremi antimaɱ dehaɱ aho dhammasudhammatā' ti.|| || ---- 480 In the shade upon the terrace walking, lo! the Chief of men. There went I, in His presence worshipping the Man of men. 481 Draped my robe was on one shoulder, forth my clasped hands were stretched, In the footsteps of the highest of all beings so I walked. 482 Then He asked me questions, He so skilled in questions and so wise. And unwavering, unafraid answered there the Lord(Buddha) I. 483 Tathagatha (i.e. Buddha) then commended how the questions answered were. And the monks-host surveying, to them made this matter known 484 'Fortunate are they of Anga, and of Magadha, from whom Such as he procurs dress, food and lodging, medicine And the reverence that is seemly, yes, they are happy!' so He said. 485 'From to-day from now on, Sopāka, come to see Me when you will. Our discourse alone, Sopāka, shall your initiation into monkhood be.' 486 Seven were my years when to me initiation thus was given. Now I bear the final body. Hail! fair Monk’s order of the Path(Dhamma).8 ---- 1 Dāyako, benefactor. 2 Veneyya - lit, capable of being led. 3 Cf. Sisters, ps. ii. 4 The Buddha's apartments at the Jeta-Vihāra. 5 Dhammapāla, verses 2S8, 289; to PaṬācārā, cf. Sisters, p. 71. 6 Cf. the similar episode in Yasa's legend (CXVII.). 7 Khuddaka pāṭha. Cf. Sisters, p. 66. 8 I have rendered these relatively crude and artless verses almost literally, not trying to recast them in English more sesthetically satisfying. If there be any truth in the tradition, they were composed by a boy of the people, of natural genius (for deep questions), but of no education. And the youth and lack of literary ability seem to be betrayed in the simply told Pali. There is a world of difference between it and the form and contents of such poems as, say, Migajāla's, Kosiya's, or those of the Kassapa brothers. ----